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Sons may help young convicts go straight

A new report suggests that young criminals who have sons are prompted to act as good role modelsPA

Teenage criminals who father sons commit fewer crimes than those who have daughters or no children at all, a study has suggested.

Researchers at UCL found that male convicts aged between 15 and 20 who had a son went on to commit 25 per cent fewer crimes. The study suggested that having a son prompted a greater sense of responsibility to be a good role model than having a daughter. One father committing fewer crimes also led to a fall in offences by his peer group.

The results led Christian Dustmann, an economics professor and director of UCL’s Centre for the Research and Analysis of Migration, to say crime is a “social phenomenon and contagious”.

“When criminal behaviour is contagious, initiatives to reduce one person’s…